Distributor for internal-combustion engines



Sept. 20, 1927.

A. HAMMOND DISTRIBUTOR FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed March 8, 1924 Patented Sept. 20, 1327 ALFRED HAMMOND, OF BOTIiEY, IE lil'CtLAND.

DISTRIBUTOR FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

Application filed March 8, 1924, Serial No.

, This invention relates to distributors for internal combustion engines and has for its principal object to provide an improved distributor having its wearing parts designed with large contacting surfaces to take up wear and to be cheaply and easily replaced when worn out. A further object is to provide similarly replaceable parts suitable for other well-known types of distributors or commutators.

In known distributors employed in dis tributing the current to the sparking plugs of internal combustion engines using electric ignition, rapid wear occurs owing to friction and to the sparking which takes place when the electrical circuit is broken, and replacements of the worn parts in existing types is costly, and in most types replacements cannot be made; this means the expense of a complete distributor.

My invention comprises a fixed ring member or body of insulating material carrying on its outer periphery a plurality of terminals equal to the number of sparking plugs to be served, and on its inner periphery an equal number of revolving ball, roller, or plunger contacts each housed in apocket in the said body or ring member and con nected to one of the said terminals, and an eccentric member keyed on a. rotating shaft within the ring member and making contact at its point either directly or through a rotatable peripheral contact ring with each of said revolving contacts in proper sequence.

A practical embodiment and several modi ill) fications of this invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a detail View of one form of eccentric member. I

Figure 2 is a sectional elevation showing an eccentric member fitted to a Ford type commutator.

Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of a distributor forms.

Referring now to Figures 1, 2 and 3, modifications of the eccentric members are shown therein, in which larger contacting surfaces are provided to take up wear and be easily ring it rotates on the three balls Z housed in fitted with contacts of different 697,806, and in Great Britain May 11, 1923.

replaced when worn. The eccentric member consists of a body 0 keyed to the shaft f and carrying a plurality of balls, rollers or plungers housed in pockets in the said body and pressed outwards by springs g and a peripheral ring it of metal rotatable freely over the balls, rollers or plungers and retained in position in a groove or between' flanges on saidbody so as to present a continually changing portion of its outer periphery to the resilient contacts on the distributor body.

Figure 1 shows two plungers p in the pockets of the body 0 and pressed outwards by springs 9 against the peripheral ring h. Figure 2 shows an eccentric member as adapted for use with a Ford commutator 71 having terminal and contact segments with which the ring it makes contact. The

pockets of the body 0 and pressed outwardly by the springs g. The three balls Z are retained in the pockets by av cylindrical band an (shown also in Figure 8) with holes corresponding in number and position with 75 the balls and slightly smaller in diameter through which the balls thus project to bear on the peripheral contact ring h. It is thus possible to remove the ring it without the balls Z escaping from the pockets.

Figure 3 shows a distributor with one ball contact Z2 fixed in its pocket between the stoppiece it under the terminal and the ring 0, and another ball contact 6 with a spring 8; also two roller contacts 7, one with spring 8 and one with stop-piece n; all these contacts are shown projecting through rings 0 which retain them in their pockets but allow them to engage the peripheral contact ring it on theeccentric body 0.

The path of the current is through the shaft 7, eccentric body 0, contacts thereon to the contacts on the distributor body, terminals t and thence to the sparking plugs.

I claim 2- In a distributor, a shaft, a member fixed eccentrically to said shaft and having a plurality of spaced peripheral sockets, a contact ring loosely surrounding said member, springs in said sockets, balls mounted in said sockets and pushed forwardly by said springs to engage the inside of the contact ring and maintain the same relatively eccentric to the distributor shaft, a shell encircling said contact ring and having a lurality of distributor terminals each inc uding a ball contact positioned to be engaged by said contact ring, and means for holding Said ball contacts in operative position in the path of said ring contact. 10 In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature hereto this 7th day of February,

ALFRED HAMMOND 

